With over 45 grandchildren between us, Aron and I are never quite sure what event we will be invited to next. We were surprised, though, when Mitchell asked us if we would prepare a gourmet dinner for him and his date before the Homecoming Dance. We were excited to say yes, because we had already discussed doing a dinner party for the grandkids in the near future.

Menu

Aron’s first task for any meal he plans is to build a menu and send it out to all dinner participants for their approval. By “approval” he means that they must agree to eat some of every dish prepared, and if steak is on the menu, they must accept that it will not be cooked over medium rare. Aron tells everyone if they need a burnt piece of beef, he will fix them a hamburger.

For this dinner, Aron decided on the following menu that he felt would appeal to teenagers:

• Shrimp Cocktail
• Lobster Salad
• Filet Mignon
• Grandma King’s Green Beans
• Macaroni & Cheese
• Creme Brulee

Shopping List

Making sure we have all of the ingredients needed for the menu is a tedious labor of love. For each menu item, Aron scours the internet for the best recipe available (except for Grandma King’s Green Beans–that’s an old family recipe). From the recipes, he creates his detailed shopping list for ingredients we may not have on hand.

Most ingredients can be found at Kroger or Publix, but good filets are sometimes hard to find at local grocery stores. For this meal, we found the best filets at M & T Meats in Hawkinsville.

Food Prep the Day Before

Aron generally prepares his meals using mise en place, which is defined as:

Although we didn’t get a picture of the actual mise en place for this dinner party, the picture above is an example of ingredients laid out for a meal.

Aron began preparing food the day before the dinner party. The creme brulee was cooked in individual ramekins and placed in the refrigerator to chill overnight. He also created his own homemade cocktail sauce on Friday, and chopped the vegetables for the lobster salad.

Food Prep the Day of

Each dish was prepared with lots of love and thoughts of his audience. Feeding teenagers who can often be picky eaters is a lot different from fixing a meal for Honeyboomers. The macaroni and cheese was NOT from a box–it was from a recipe called “The Best Homemade Mac and Cheese” that called for 13 ingredients. Aron had this in the oven before the guests arrived.

Since the cocktail sauce for the shrimp was prepared the day before, it only took a few minutes to drop the shrimp into boiling water for the Shrimp Cocktail. Besides Mitchell and Emma, who the dinner party was for, Mitchell’s sisters (Chloe and Alauna) and two friends attended too.

The lobster cooked quickly, and was easily mixed in with the pre-cut vegetables and spooned into the lobster shells.

Aron’s family has grown up with Grandma King’s Green Beans, so it only seemed right to serve this family favorite at Mitchell’s first dinner party. It was also another easy dish to prepare. We bought fresh green beans already cut, so it was simple to add chopped onions and bacon and put it all in the old pressure cooker.

Aron trimmed the filets to make them as uniform in size as possible so that they would all cook equally. He tied a string around each one to hold them together in the pan.

Salad is Served

Mitchell’s sister, Chloe, is a server at Outback, and she graciously agreed to be our waitress for the evening. She was happy to oblige, and she did a superb job!! The first course served was the Lobster Salad.

The Main Course

While the kids were eating their Lobster Salad, Aron was busy cooking the filets. With the green beans and mac and cheese already done, this was the last step for the main course. He used a thermometer to ensure that they were perfectly cooked at medium rare.

So far, everything was going like clockwork!

Our guests indicated they were getting full already, but when they were served the main course, they dug right in!

Dessert

Aron used a little food torch to caramelize the sugar on top of the creme brulee. It’s such a light and creamy dessert, that no one had any trouble getting it down.

On to the Homecoming Dance

What a delightful evening we had with our grandchildren and their friends! After dessert, Mitchell and Emma were on schedule to head out for their Homecoming Dance.

Highlights

Being around grandchildren is always a treat. To know that we contributed something to a special evening in their lives is endearing to us. We enjoyed the entire evening and all of the planning and preparation that went into it. Some special moments that we don’t want to forget:

• Chloe helped us so much by putting on an apron and waiting on the table.
• Mitchell took off his jacket, and put it on Emma’s shoulders when she was cold.
• Mitchell cut Emma’s filet for her.
• We realized that although older, Chloe is now shorter than her sister Alauna.
• Mitchell asked his Grandpa to make sure his tie was OK. This was an especially poignant moment when we realized it was a replay of one year ago, when Grandpa helped Mitchell get ready for last year’s Homecoming Dance. We hope he will be back next year too!